Results of No Protecting Carpet of Vegetation 77 



the cream of his soil. He must at once stop plowing the 

 steep hillsides and leaving the ground bare for the winter 

 rains to wash it away. To save the slopes he can either 

 terrace them or he can sow grass or clover, which will form 

 a sod and hold the soil. If the farmer can get peas, beans, 

 alfalfa, or clover to grow upon his wasted lands, they will 

 make it fertile again, for these plants have the wonderful 

 power of taking nitrogen from the air and storing it in the 

 soil. 



More earth has been washed from, the hillsides of our 

 country during the last fifty years than during thousands of 

 years before white people came. The farm Jands have been 

 injured, the bays have been made shallower, and many 

 river channels have been so filled up that it is more difi&cult 

 to navigate them now than it was in the early days. 



The farmer, the stockman, the lumberman, and the miner 

 has each been selfishly doing his share in the destruction of 

 the soil. Each one has thought only of how he could make 

 the most money in the shortest time. It has not occurred 

 to them that they are making it dif&cult for their children 

 and grandchildren to live. 



In the Southern states thousands of acres are being gul- 

 lied by the rains, and the soil destroyed. The floods of 

 spring have become worse in late years, because of the de- 

 struction of the forest cover in the Appalachian Mountains. 

 Buildings and bridges are frequently carried away, and 

 gravel and boulders are washed over the rich bottorn lands. 



In the mountains of far-away Italy the soil is poor, and 

 so are the people. They have cut down nearly all the 

 trees and for hundreds of years the brush and grass have 

 been eaten so closely by the sheep and goats that few roots 



